It has long been known that absorbent articles such as conventional taped diapers offer the benefit of receiving and containing urine and/or other bodily exudates. To effectively contain exudates, the article should provide a snug fit around the waist and legs of a wearer. Absorbent articles are known to have a chassis comprising a topsheet, a backsheet, and an absorbent core.
Current diaper designs frequently include the use of an inner barrier leg cuff to prevent leakage of bodily exudates and an outer leg cuff which provides a covering over the inner leg cuff to minimize the visibility of exudates through the inner cuff and provide a secondary means to capture bodily exudates should they breach the inner barrier leg cuff. The inner barrier leg cuff may be made using a hydrophobic nonwoven and may be disposed on the body-facing surface of the absorbent article or connected to the body-facing surface of the film backsheet layer. The inner barrier leg cuff may be a substantially liquid impervious layer that prevents bodily exudates from passing out of the sides of the article and may also be highly breathable, allowing outside air to reach the skin to help maintain a healthy level of skin hydration. In many current diapers, the outer leg cuff comprises the polymeric film layer of the backsheet to provide high opacity required to cover the inner leg cuff as well as to prevent molten adhesive from passing through the cuff to the garment-facing surface of the article during manufacturing. The outer leg cuff contains the outer leg elastic strands, which create the contraction forces and gathers, and can be sandwiched between the cuff material and backsheet material. The elastic strands in the leg cuffs are typically joined with molten adhesive during manufacture, and the hot adhesive generally has the potential to pass through nonwoven materials during manufacture, causing contamination of manufacturing lines as well as the potential for stickiness on the outside surface of the article. The polymeric film generally is used to prevent these issues, however, results in a plastic-like look as well as a noisy application process.
Because of manufacturing tolerances when cutting, tracking, and combining materials, the outer leg elastic strands are generally spaced inboard from the longitudinal edge of the article in the crotch region. This prevents inadvertent cutting or exposure of the outer leg elastic strands during the manufacturing process. This design does not result in the outermost portion of the longitudinal edge of the product continuously contacting closely to the skin of the user during wear. Thus, the ability of the elastic strand(s) to control the edge of the article diminishes as the distance between the outermost elastic and the edge increases, leading to a more random distribution of larger gathers which contact the skin at larger intervals or sometimes not at all. This effect can lead to user perception that the diaper may leak where the longitudinal edge does not contact the skin of the user. In addition, many articles currently available contain only two to three outer leg elastics per side to create the gathers, increasing the difficulty of achieving the desired appearance of a wide finished leg cuff or more garment-like cuff such as the elasticized hemmed edge of the arm cuff of a sweater. If the elastics are spaced more closely, the result is a narrow section of elasticized zone, which results in a less finished, less comfortable, and less clothing-like appearance. If the elastics are spaced farther apart, the gathers can appear to separate further from the skin of the user, leading to a perception of potential leakage risk. As discussed above, this is driven by having less control of the gathers between strands of increasing separation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a folded outer leg cuff design having finished edges with elastics that are close to the edge to maintain a close proximity to the skin to create improved fit, a more aesthetically pleasing, clothing-like design and improved leakage protection. It is also desirable that the article have a folded outer leg cuff design that does not have a polymeric film in the elasticized region and still prevents penetration of exudates and molten adhesive.